When New Jersey acquired Jack Hughes at the draft, it looked like this team was getting a tremendous boost after a year of underachieving. Ray Shero added PK Subban to the roster in what many thought was an attempt to keep Taylor Hall in the fold. Wayne Simmonds was brought in to aid on net front scoring, and the team still has Nico Hischier in tow. Needless to say, things have not gone the way the New Jersey Devils had hoped. Corey Schneider, a once solid net presence, was waived unceremoniously to the minors with no takers. The net now belongs to Mackenzie Blackwood who is 7-6-3 with a 3.07 GAA and .898 SV%. More ominous with those numbers is that Blackwood has a shutout on the season.
For the Wings, Bernier compares closely to Blackwood at 5-5-2 with 3.24 GAA and .891 SV%, no shutouts. This game could be a high scoring affair. NJ has a power play functioning at 14.5% and a PK at 76.1% (25th and 23rd respectively) for a special teams total of 90.6%. Detroit’s power play is also at 14.5% (26th) with a PK at 71.4% (30th) for a total special teams number of 85.9%. Just like with Columbus, these two teams stack up closely. And, this seems to be the kind of game Detroit doesn’t prepare well for.
The biggest difference between the two is that New Jersey believed they had the pieces in place to make a post season run. With 3 first overall picks on the team and adding Subban there was a lot of excitement going into the year. Things have not gone well. Detroit is expected to be a rebuilding team. Success is expected to be difficult right now, with the hope that the players will take steps in the right direction. For New Jersey to be on a similar pace as a projected bottom 3-5 team cannot sit well with ownership or management.
Just like with Columbus, New Jersey does NOT want to lose this contest. If Detroit comes out scoring I expect a very physical, borderline nasty affair. Fabbri, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, Mantha and Larkin could all have good games. Hronek has been skating and making opportunities. With some solid goal tending this, again, is a contest Detroit could win.
There isn’t much consistency in Detroit’s play right now. Against Boston and Las Vegas (and Montreal earlier) the team seemed hungry and sharp. Against teams that are struggling everything looks sloppy at the start. The mental preparation needs to be much better game in/game out. Hopefully, Detroit comes ready to play. We’ll see what Winged Wheel has to offer tonight.
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